Ginny's Nightmares
by BohemianTypewriter
Summary: Nightmares plague Ginny after Riddle's diary had controlled her. One night she slips out in the rin for some fresh air and stumbles into an unexpected Someone.


Ginny woke with her heart beating wildly. The nightmare, the dream that had been so vivid it felt like a walk down time, slipped like sand through her fingers but left a strange sense of dread behind. It had replayed the worst time of her life: when Riddle's diary had been controlling her. All the threats and promises he'd given her, the way he would rise from the diary and sink into her body, controlling her, all these memories made her feel sick to the stomach.

I'm not so vulnerable now, Ginny told herself. I'm not eleven, I'm thirteen and I can protect myself. I don't need anybody. This wasn't a new thought. She would tell herself this every night, when it felt hard to get up and enjoy life because Riddle could take it away, all the pleasures and all the joy.

The dormitory echoed with the quiet breathing of her dorm mates. A fine, whispering rain fell against the windows, and for a moment she stared through the window beside her bead, looking at the dark sky, with only a faint splinter of moon illuminated. It got so hot in her room Ginny tossed the covers off. The dormitory was stuffy; it felt like a cage. Ginny knew if she didn't get out soon she was going to start throwing things, then her roommates would wake up and be annoyed with her.

She drew the curtains around her four poster beds. Ginny changed out of her pajamas into pants and her green sweater. As she shrugged on her coat, she hesitated, and then slipped her wand into her pants pocket. Her muddy boots were by the bed, but they were a hand-me-down from Ron, and apparently one of them didn't walk properly, and the boots had broken in all wrong. She put on her sneakers opened the door quietly, and left.

Ginny's shoes squeaked as she carefully stepped around the creaky floorboard, ran down the stone floor instead of the slippery rugs, avoided the suits of armor, and dashed into a cobwebby broom cupboard to avoid Peeves, who was zooming down the hall with his feet in the air, blowing raspberries. Ginny was quiet, even when a hairy spider promptly ran across her fingers. She'd spent a lot of time sneaking into her brothers' broom shed and trying out their brooms, because they never let her play Quidditch with them, with that boyish arrogance that just because she was a girl, she had to be a bad quidditch player. Even though the three Gryffindor Chasers were girls. When Peeves's cackles faded, she stepped out and quickly ran all the way into the grounds.

The rain slanted down towards her and there was a cold wind blowing from the Great Lake. Ginny shivered and pulled up the hood of her shabby coat, and tied the cord under her chin. She pushed her hands into her pockets, looking at the raindrops sparkling on the smooth grass, the speckles of moonlight peppering the ground. She sat down where she was, on the soaked grass, even though the cold seeped up through the fabric of her jeans, listening to the song of the rain falling into the grass, the flicker of bats over her head, the chirping of crickets. Ginny stared around her, alone.

A hand brushed the top of her head. "Ginny?"

Ginny screamed and turned around, but there was nobody there. Or was there? She stared at the rivulets of water running along the shrouded figure and realized. The person was wearing an Invisibility Cloak.

Ginny took a running leap, slamming against the person, locking her legs against them, pulling out her wand from her pocket with one hand while fumbling to yank the fabric of the Cloak from the person's face. The air came from the person's lungs in a surprised grunt. Her eyes looked at the person's face, took in the shock of dark hair and the green eyes behind slightly lopsided glasses. "Harry! Oh my God, I'm _so _sorry."

Harry blinked at his best friend's little sister. "Would you mind getting off me?"

Ginny blushed. She'd never felt so mortified in her life. "Sorry," she repeated, and then she stood up off him. Ginny reached down to pull him to his feet and he took her, hauling himself up and brushing the mud from his pants, swearing quietly under his breath.

Ginny fixed her eyes on a point near his knee, rubbing her sneaker into the ground with a funny expression on her face. Harry seemed to be spending an unusually long time brushing away the mud and she realized he was trying to avoid her eyes. Ginny smirked, glad that the circumstances were making him embarrassed instead of her, for once.

Harry looked at her. "What are you doing here?" the two of them chorused. A faint look of amusement screened over his face, and Ginny smiled back at him. Harry rubbed the back of his neck a bit awkwardly. "Do you think it is okay to go back?" she asked. Harry shook his head. "Filch and the Bloody Baron are both in the hall. We should wait a little longer."

Harry led Ginny to a clump of trees where it wasn't so wet, but they were now directly against the chilly wind and the residual drips of water fell on them. "We're a bit exposed here, don't you think?" said Ginny. "You can share the Invisibility Cloak if you like. We'll both easily fit," said Harry.

At Ginny's nod, Harry beckoned to her and draped the silvery Cloak around her shoulders. The cloak was too small to cover the two of them perfectly while they were sitting apart, which meant that Ginny had to press against Harry so that the Cloak could tuck under her ankles. The Cloak was toasty warm and she snuggled down gratefully. "This is an enormous improvement over the mud," said Ginny, smiling a little.


End file.
